1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the present invention relate generally to a three dimensional (3D) graphics application programming interface (API) extension, and more particularly to converting image data to and from a shared exponent format.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently 3D graphics content developers are using high dynamic range color components to increase visual realism. An 8 bit per component fixed point format does not provide enough range and precision to represent the high dynamic range color components. A floating point format, typically 16 or 32 bits per component provides the needed range and precision, but does not have a compact encoding compared with the fixed point format.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is the ability to represent high dynamic range values using a floating point format with a compact encoding in order to store images in the same or less memory than fixed point format images. Furthermore, it is desirable to specify the high dynamic range format with the compact encoding for use with graphics library operations that are provided by conventional APIs.